With the Hagaman Memorial Library’s recent return to in-person services and programs, Sascha Gardiner, children’s librarian, is more excited than ever for this year’s summer reading program with a “Tails and Tales” theme. There are three categories of the program, including Pre-K for children up to age four, children ages 5 to 12, and teens from 13 to 18 and Gardiner is hoping to see participation numbers grow toward the pre-COVID numbers with 780 participating in the program.

“We hope to build back up to 300-plus participants this summer as we slowly and steadily welcome everyone back,” said Gardiner. “The Summer Reading Program is a celebration of reading and literacy, but also a joyous time for our community to get together. We love our community and we all got through a lot together this year. We are eager to welcome everyone back to the library. We want to congratulate everyone, in person, for making it through a challenging year.”

Though the library is open to in-person guests, those who have not been vaccinated are asked to continue to wear masks. The staff has also been busy planning an array of activities, including many that will be hosted outdoors.

The library’s calendar features the full schedule of events, including Tuesday morning music with Rob Messore at 10:30 a.m. through July 27. There will also be a family concert by Tom Weber on Thursday, July 15 at 6:30 p.m. on the library lawn. Other summer events include teen gaming afternoons, story times with make and take crafts, movie showings, and more.

The Tails and Tales Summer Reading kick-off event featured Animal Embassy, which showcased a variety of animals, including a giant tortoise, a Kunekune pig from New Zealand, and other fascinating creatures. The event was sponsored by CT Humanities and drew nearly 85 patrons.

CT Humanities was also instrumental in helping to supply more than 150 brand new books that were included in welcome bags for the pre-k and children’s summer reading program participants. The welcome bags also contained other small treats.

At every level of Tails and Tales, participants will earn raffle tickets. For pre-k, children will receive a sticker for every day they read and after completing a row on the game board (eight days), they get a small prize and are entered into the grand prize raffle to be drawn in August.

For children aged 5 to 12 and teens, participants will receive a raffle ticket for each book read (including ebooks and audiobooks) or each event participated in (virtual or in person). Raffle tickets are then entered into the drawing for the grand prize. For teens, the grand prize in the raffle drawing is a $75 Amazon gift card and the teen who reads the most books will win a $30 Barnes & Noble gift card.

“Kids also get raffle tickets for chances to win grand prizes by completing reading goals, along with weekly small prizes, like finger puppets, bookmarks, pencils, Pokemon, etc. to help keep them motivated and returning to the library,” said Gardiner. “We tried to keep it simple during this challenging year, with the goal being to try to read every day.”

Last year, the summer reading program had to shift to more online activities and tracking of books read. This year, there are still online aspects of the program available, but Gardiner is hoping for more of a return to “normal.”

“We’ll have paper tracking sheets, free books, weekly incentives, and chances to win bigger rewards in August by reading and program participation,” said Gardiner. “We have a hybrid program this year, but the live program is the more popular aspect. People are ready to safely interact in person and we love seeing the kids back in the library.”